Tag Archives: If Beale Street Could Talk

I don’t think there is an awful lot to say about the 2019 races for Best Original Song and Best Original Score. One is barely a race, and the other has a standout front-runner with only minor competition.

This isn’t to say that the two categories are complete locks, but they are both pretty darn close.

Across the two 2019 writing categories, I think there are seven high quality scripts. There are two-to-three that are damn near brilliant. But that holds no bearing on the task at hand, which is to suss out exactly which scripts have a chance at taking home the trophy.

There were a lot of visually appealing films in 2018. Films with a diversity of aesthetic styles. There’s something disorienting in First Man. Something queasy in The Favourite. Something slow and crafty in Roma. Something sumptuous and classical in Cold War. Etcetera. Etcetera.

With that being said, narrowing down the final Oscar shortlist to five is no short order. And with the American Society of Cinematographers not dropping their nominees in this category until January 7, we’re flying a bit blind here. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The 2019 Oscar race for Best Picture seems surprisingly cut and dry. There are a handful of films that would be baffling to see not make the cut, and there are only a couple of films that have the campaign strength to move into the race.

If the race comes down to a final eight, then the films are already accounted for. The few films that could take up the rear and fill a ninth or tenth slot don’t necessarily have the consensus support needed to raise to the top of voters’ ballots.

All in all, there are only a few potential surprises in this year’s race. Might as well dig into them, anyway, right?

The arduous task of movie list-making has never been my forte. I am too prone to adjusting my opinions and tweaking grades up or down a half-letter grade. Most years, I shuffle my list around until a breaking point is reached and I publish impulsively.

This year is no different. With almost 200 films from 2018 in my head, it is difficult to narrow it down to 25. It is harder to take those 25 and rank them in any meaningful way. Each film in my top five could be number one. There are films in my top 50 that could have moved into the top 25 (for now, Avengers: Infinity War is at the 50-spot, and that was an enjoyable film which I saw twice in the theater). It pains me a little to not be able to give a blurb to Sorry to Bother You, which narrowly missed the top 25.

Long story short, 2018 was a very good year in film. I may not have seen a standout, A+ film. But I witnessed many, many A-/B+ films.

The following 25 films are, as of this writing, my favorite of the year. But there are many other noteworthy films out there. You can see my full ranking of 2018 films (subject to continual change) at Letterboxd.